


me W/O us

by orphan_account



Category: As It Is (Band), Set It Off (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, F/M, Minor Character Death, Sad Ending, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, no happy ending, referenced character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-06-30
Packaged: 2020-05-31 02:01:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19416175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Soulmates had been considered the most important thing society had ever invented for as long as anyone could remember. No one's really sure how it all started and all stories about its origin are different, but everyone knew how soulmate marks appeared. Everyone would get a set of initials seared into their skin the day that they turned seventeen years old, and the initials would turn red as soon as they met their soulmate, an indication that their fates would be intertwined for the rest of their lives. This usually meant the soulmates would eventually fall in love and live out the rest of their lives as the dual embodiments of one soul, made whole.or the one written for my friends because angst is fun (but not really)





	me W/O us

Soulmates had been considered the most important thing society had ever invented for as long as anyone could remember. No one's really sure how it all started and all stories about its origin are different, but everyone knew how soulmate marks appeared. Everyone would get a set of initials seared into their skin the day that they turned seventeen years old, and the initials would turn red as soon as they met their soulmate, an indication that their fates would be intertwined for the rest of their lives. This usually meant the soulmates would eventually fall in love and live out the rest of their lives as the dual embodiments of one soul, made whole.

Maxx had waited for the day to come for years, checking on the morning of every birthday to see if the initials were to appear earlier than expected. Eventually his seventeenth birthday came, and his soulmate's initials did as well. The black initials on the inside of his wrist enchanted him and left him with a hopeful outlook on life: he was destined to fall in love with someone, and that someone would be his one true love. His mom had always told him the story of soulmates the same way anyone else would talk about fairy tales and fables, filled his head with stories of lovers who travelled the world to find each other and of what would happen as soon as he met his own soulmate.

"One day, you might be walking down the street and see your marking change from jet black to cherry red out of the corner of your eye and you'll turn around and your soulmate will be right there waiting for you!"

Maxx learned later on that nothing ever really played out like that, one of his closest friends met his soulmate while doing body shots off of her. He could laugh at how absurd things truly were and accepted that the universe moved mysteriously. Of course there were instances that weren't as lucky and ended tragically. Another one of his friends had the initials on her wrist turn white when she was nineteen in the middle of class, and Maxx came to understand the meaning of white initials: your soulmate had died without you ever knowing them.

He eventually took up a job as a barista when he was 22 and fresh out of university. He knew he wanted to get his master's degree as soon as he could and started saving up money for it, taking up a job at Starbucks with shifts in the evening as a means of income. He was lucky the job paid well enough for him to afford a small studio apartment off campus and enough money to sustain him and his cat comfortably. 

One of the perks of working at such a public place meant he saw many people meeting their soulmates of the first time. He can recall ones where the soulmates met on Tinder and met at the Starbucks only to find out that their soulmate had been the one to match them, and instances where soulmates met when their name was called to get their drink, only to find out that their soulmate had the same name as them. He could only hope that his soulmate would be one of the people who came through the door to get coffee and they'd meet in a cliche way, but as Maxx knew even before meeting his soulmate, nothing ever really worked out the way he wished it would.

The sun was setting outside, the orange glow bouncing off of the metal equipment of the coffee shop. Maxx had to squint when he heard the bells of the front door jingle, a signal that someone had just entered and was headed towards the counter. When he moved over slightly, he could see a taller guy with straight black hair, his eyes hidden behind a rounded pair of sunglasses. Maxx had never seen him inside the shop before.

He walked over to the counter and took his sunglasses off, his eyes shone a brilliant blue and he flashed a small smile. Maxx gaped dumbly, forcing himself to shut his mouth and he swallowed sharply.

“Hi, welcome to Starbucks. What can I get you?” he said, launching into his usual greeting. The guy looked up at the boards above Maxx’s head for a few seconds, looking at all the different options and trying to decide what to drink.

“Can I get a… Venti chai tea latte? Cold?” he said simply, pointing up at the menu even though Maxx couldn’t see it. He went over to grab one of the plastic cups and a Sharpie from the cup of markers behind the counter. 

“Can I get a name for th- holy shit.” he said, stopping mid-sentence. As soon as he saw his soulmate tattoo the cup he had been holding fell to the ground.

The formerly black initials were cherry red, just as his mom had said they would be all those years ago. The ‘PW’ he’d obsessed over since he was seventeen were finally red and he felt so much relief he could cry. The other guy looked like he had seen a ghost.

“Oh God, I… I hoped we wouldn’t ever meet.”

Maxx’s heart dropped and a lump swelled in the back of his throat. Of all the possible outcomes, this was the only one he didn’t account for. What did he mean by ‘I hoped we wouldn’t ever meet’? 

“I… you… What?” Max said with a brokenhearted tone, searching the man’s face expectantly. He could only hope for some kind of explanation. Maybe it was just some kind of misunderstanding and Maxx had misinterpreted what it meant. You couldn’t just… reject your soulmate… right?

The man rolled up one of his long striped sleeves to reveal his wrist that had two markings on it. The first was very noticeable- a bright red box right above a set of initials in a faded pink color that barely stood out against the man’s skin tone. Maxx’s mind went blank when he realises what it meant.

“You had two?”

“The second one only appeared after she-” He doesn’t finish and looks at his feet, the slight quiver in his voice hitting Maxx like a ton of bricks. He was born to be the replacement for someone else. His blood runs cold and ringing starts in his ears. He’s had the initials on his wrist for the past five years and it never occurred to him that people could have multiple soulmates in the event of their original soulmate passing away. The thought makes Maxx sick to his stomach. It also becomes clear that Maxx’s initials had been where the box was at one point but the guy got them covered up. He didn’t want another soulmate. Maxx understood why he’d decided to get them covered up, but it hurt more than he could ever explain.

“I’m sorry I can’t- I have to go home, I’m so sorry,” he says with a shaky voice, trying his best to apologize to the man on the other side of the counter and to his co-workers who are staring at him, not quite understanding what to do other then tell their manager what happened during the shift.

He drives home in a daze, a headache pounding against his temples as the events play on a loop inside his head. He can’t stop thinking about it no matter how hard he tries. He turns the radio on and powers through the drive home, resting his head against the steering wheel at every red light. 

When he gets home, he makes a beeline straight to his bedroom and doesn’t bother to kick his shoes off at the door. For as long as he could remember, meeting his soulmate had been the only thing he had looked forward to, and he could remember some of his roughest years where the promise of a soulmate was the only thing that kept him going when he was at his lowest. He could never blame the man for deciding he wanted only one soulmate for the rest of his life- he probably would’ve done the same if faced with the same situation but he would never forget how much it hurt. He hated knowing he wasn’t anything more than the replacement for someone who had died, someone who had made his soulmate so happy that he didn’t want to move on. 

Maxx buried his face into his pillow as Pistol jumped up on the bed beside him and nudged his shoulder with a gentle meow. He turned his head to face her and ran a hand over her back, feeling her purr softly. His eyes were bleary and they stung from the tears, but he closed them as Pistol curled up next to his head. Eventually the breathy sobs that wracked his body evened out as he fell into a dark and dreamless sleep.

Maybe soulmates weren’t all they were cracked up to be.

**Author's Note:**

> this has been your friendly neighborhood AngstFest (Sponsored By Monster Energy)


End file.
